When it came to Wikipedia, Pew's researchers made two key findings: First, teachers overwhelmingly admonish their students not to use the Web-based open-access encyclopedia as a source, warning them that its accuracy can't be trusted. Second, teachers overwhelmingly use it themselves for research and preparation.

In fact, they use it "at much higher rates than U.S. adult internet users as a whole (87% vs. 53%), according to Pew's report.
And they use it in just the same way most students do: "to get a short, straightforward summary of a topic before moving on to other sources." (Pssst, kids: We reporters use it that way, too.)

Pew also found that Wikipedia reliance "does not vary across teachers of different subjects, grade levels, or community types," and only varies ever so slightly by age, with 90% of the youngest teachers using it versus 85% of those 55 and older.